I Give Up
by GryffindorTom
Summary: Harry Potter is depressed. Being shunned by the majority of the school for being different, bullied by some for having a power that only two other people has, he is at the end of his tether. What happens when he goes to the Astronomy Tower and sees Hermione and Ron discussing him...and how the Dursley's were right about him being a complete freak...


Title **I Give Up / / /** Rating **M**

Summary **Harry Potter is depressed. Being shunned by the majority of the school for being different, bullied by some for having a power that only two other people has, he is at the end of his tether. What happens when he goes to the Astronomy Tower and sees Hermione and Ron discussing him...and how the Dursley's were right about him being a complete freak.**

Pairings **Ron/Hermione**

Warnings **Contains** **quite a bit of bashing of most of Hogwarts, thoughts of depression and suicidal thoughts.**

 _Contains text from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets…_

- **I Give Up** -

 _ **Gryffindor Common Room, Gryffindor Tower, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland**_

 _ **13**_ _ **th**_ _ **November 1992**_

"I spoke a different language? But…I don't get it…how can I speak a language without knowing I can speak it?"

Ron shook his head. Both he and Hermione were looking as though someone had died. Harry couldn't see what was so terrible.

"D'you want to tell me what's wrong with stopping a massive snake biting off Justin's head?" he said. "What does it matter how I did it as long as Justin doesn't have to join the Headless Hunt?"

"It matters," said Hermione, speaking at last in a hushed voice, "because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol of Slytherin House is a serpent."

Harry's mouth fell open.

"Exactly," said Ron. "And now the whole school's going to think you're his great-great-great-great-grandson or something"

"But I'm not," said Harry, with a panic he couldn't quite explain.

"You'll find that hard to prove," said Hermione. "He lived about a thousand years ago; for all we know, you could be."

Harry lay awake for hours that night. Through a gap in the curtains around his four-poster he watched snow starting to drift past the tower window and pursued his thoughts. ' _Could I be a descendant of Salazar Slytherin? I mean, even though I tried to look in the library for any information on the Potter family and was unable. Even Professor McGonagall wouldn't give me any information.'_

Quietly, Harry tried to say something in Parseltongue. The words wouldn't come. It seemed he had to be face-to-face with a snake to do it.

' _But I'm in Gryffindor_ ,' Harry thought. ' _The Sorting Hat wouldn't have put me in here if I had Slytherin blood_ …'

' _Ah_ ', said a nasty little voice in his brain, ' _but the Sorting Hat wanted to put you in Slytherin, don't you remember?'_

Harry turned over in his bed when he suddenly realised that he had seen Delphini Riddle, the daughter of the Dark Lord, smiling as he had spoken Parseltongue, realising that she had the ability to do so as well as him, meaning that her father would too.

Little would he expect that his school 'friends', the people who he knew, would soon turn on him…

 _ **Astronomy Tower, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Scotland**_

 _ **27**_ _ **th**_ _ **November 1992**_

Harry was at the end of his tether. He had been beaten up by Seventh Years, attacked by First Years, called a follower of Voldemort and accused of all sorts, just because he had tried to stop the snake that Draco Malfoy had conjured from attacking his year mate.

Fred and George, the Weasley twins, did not help. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard

coming through…" and "Harry's in a hurry, he's off to the Chamber of Secrets for a cup of tea with his fanged servant."

They had received a Howler from their mother about it, Percy and Ginny being deeply disapproving of their behaviour, even though they knew that they were doing it in jest, but Harry had thought that they were doing it seriously, the way that they had come out with it.

"It is not a laughing matter," Percy had said to the twins coldly on one such occasion, giving them detention with the caretaker. "Young Harry is not the Heir of Slytherin, how could he be when he was in the Hospital Wing, injured, when the second attack happened?"

Nobody, however, listened to the Sixth-Year Gryffindor, having formed their own cliques to start attacking and injuring Harry.

Draco Malfoy started to increasingly sour each time he saw the Weasley twins at it, with Ron and Hermione having their own theories for it.

"It's because he's bursting to say it's really him," Ron said, even though he had suspected that Harry was in fact the heir, and wanted to protect his girlfriend from him. "You know how he hates anyone beating him at anything, and you're getting all the credit for his dirty work."

"Not for long," said Hermione in a satisfied tone. "The Polyjuice Potion's nearly ready. We'll be getting the truth out of him any day now."

Harry did not realise, until he had sneaked out of the common room that the potion that Ron and Hermione had brewed was in fact Veritaserum. This was the last straw for him, knowing his friends did not believe him.

Walking to the Astronomy Tower, Harry knew that he had had enough, that the accusations, the assaults, the attacks, were all getting him down, they were making him depressed, the feeling of being worthless, something that even his two best friends were causing.

He remembered how he had even been kicked off the Quidditch team by the three Chasers, who were Muggleborns, even though Oliver and the twins had objected

Arriving on the top of the Astronomy Tower, he saw the sight that he had never wanted to see, having had feelings for Hermione since the start of the year. He saw Ron up in the Astronomy Tower, holding Hermione in his arms, their lips connected as if someone had welded them together.

Leaving the note in his pocket, he walked past the couple who were, in fact talking about him.

"Potter should not have been rescued but my sister and the twins demanded I go." Ron said, unaware that he was being listened to. "He was caged up like an animal. He is too dangerous for this school."

"The Dursley's are right. Mother went to meet that Vernon Durseley a few years ago on business, the group of dentists that she works with planning to upgrade some of their tools, and all he had to say about Harry was that he was a complete freak." Hermione replied. "She looked at him and wanted to take him home but Mr Dursley said that he had to stay at his house and that she would not like a freak like him."

"He doesn't realise that we have been together since the start of the year. He has a crush on you, you know."

"Why would I want to date him. His great-grandfather was the reason my family lost its magic until me. I can't believe he thinks he is our friends. Oh well, only a few more days until the Veritaserum is finished and then we can grill him in public about his involvement about the snake"

Having heard enough, Harry knew that he was right to want to end his life, the note in his pocket stating the truth about what happened to Justin, how Harry was trying to protect the son of an Army officer. He headed round the opposite side to where Hermione and Ron were slagging him off, heading closer to the edge, his tears that had been a near permanent feature while he was awake ever since the accusations started, the frequent attacks causing him to become even more regular at the hospital wing, getting louder, drawing attention to the two people who were plotting to discredit him even more.

Standing on the edge, pocketing his family's invisibility cloak, knowing that he would not need that now, he leaned forward, what happening next causing all of Hogwarts to be in shock, with Harry thinking only one thing as he was about to head over the edge.

' _I give up._ '

- **I Give Up** -

 **Disclaimer** I don't own the **Harry Potter series.** Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling, and are not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only. Any text used from the Harry Potter series is used under the fair use allowances of various copyright acts

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 **Type** One-Shot / / / **Status** Complete

 **Distribution** FFN, AO3, GryffindorTom Online

 **Story ID** **19** **8 / / /** **Publish Date 05/** **03/2017**


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